obesity •

Heart Attack Now Affects Younger Population

March 28, 2016 By John Cooper Leave a Comment

The age people can have a fatal heart attack have dropped in recent years, a new study suggests.

A group of Cleveland Clinic researchers found that heart disease affects more and more young Americans that are overweight. Researchers also found that these people had also other risk factors that may fuel heart disease such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

The study results which were unveiled at this year’s American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session come as a surprise as people are nowadays increasingly aware of the risk factors that may make them more prone to develop heart conditions.

Plus, there are now better treatments for heart disease than ever. Yet, there is a lot to be done on the prevention side, as Dr. Samir Kapadia, the lead author of the study, put it. He also urged physicians to underline the importance of making some lifestyle changes such as weight control, consuming healthy foods, and staying physically fit to their young patients.

Dr. Kapadia and his fellow researchers sifted through Cleveland Clinic data on 4,000 heart disease patients that were affected by the deadliest form of heart attack between 1995 and 2014. ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) happens when a major artery gets clogged and the blood flow to heart muscle is cut off.

This type of heart attack has the highest mortality rates and involves the higher risk of disability. Patients are at a higher risk of STEMI as they age or if they have a family history of heart disease. But other risk factors include smoking, substance abuse, lack of exercise, and poor diet habits.

After dividing the data on study participants in four groups depending on the date of the heart attack, scientists found that over the years STEMI patients were getting younger. According to the research, in the past patients had a STEMI event at the age 64, but in less than a decade that age dropped to 60.

In the meantime, obesity rates for these patients climbed from 31 percent to 40 percent, and so did diabetes rates from 55 percent to 77 percent. But the most surprising finding was that smoking rates soared from 28 percent to 46 percent over the last two decades, which is at odds with the national trend of declining smoking rates nationwide.

Furthermore, patients with more than tree risk factors for heart disease jumped from 65 percent to 85 percent over the same period. The American College of Cardiology commented on the findings deeming them ‘concerning.’ The ACC couldn’t grasp why efforts to reduce risk factors in the past 20 years seem to have failed.

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Team Finds Brain ‘Switch’ that Says When You’re Full

March 19, 2016 By Dean Lamori 1 Comment

Scientists have detected a brain switch that can control appetite and prevent food cravings and overeating.

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers have recently identified a brain ‘switch’ that may be responsible for controlling appetite in mice. If the switch is ‘broken,’ the rodents find it hard to stop eating and become obese in less than a month.

The team believes that blood sugar may influence when the switch is turned on after having a meal. When the switch is on people feel full, but when the switch is off or fails to work properly people tend to overeat.

Researchers discovered the new mechanism while they were analyzing the strength of neural connections in the brains of laboratory mice. They have long suspected that an enzyme dubbed OGT may have something to do with appetite control. So, they decided to genetically tweak several mice to block enzyme production in the rodents’ brain and see what happens.

Past studies had revealed that OGT also plays an important role in various metabolic processes such as insulin and blood glucose use. But when researchers removed the enzyme from mice’s brains, the animals put on weight rapidly. Some of them became obese in only about three weeks.

Olof Lagerlof, lead author of the study, noted that the animals cannot grasp when they had enough food so they keep gorging on. The team also found that appetite could no longer be controlled when the OGT enzyme lacked in a certain area of the brain in the hypothalamus.

Researchers reported that they noticed the mice were getting really fat two weeks after the experiment. Yet, the team wanted to confirm whether the OGT enzyme was responsible for appetite control. So, they artificially raised the levels of the enzyme in some mice’s brains. These mice stopped from eating even when they were still hungry.

Scientists also said that the mice that had the OGT removed from their systems lingered over their meals and ate twice as many calories as normal mice. Though the mice were not given extra portions, they kept putting on weight at an extremely fast rate.

The team explained that the enzyme acts like a switch that gets turned on or off by the levels of blood sugar which naturally increase after a meal.

Researchers suspect that a similar switch may be found in humans too. Yet, they need more research to confirm the hypothesis. If the theory is correct, however, scientists could develop drugs that can control appetite and prevent people from overeating.

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Kids without Younger Siblings Thrice as Likely to Become Obese by 1st Grade

March 14, 2016 By Dean Lamori Leave a Comment

Kids who have younger siblings are at a lower risk of childhood obesity.

Recent research shows that welcoming a younger sibling in the family before first grade may have unexpected health benefits for their older siblings.

U.S. researchers at the University of Michigan found that children of the age 2-4 who become older brothers or sisters were at a lower risk of becoming obese by first grade than children with no siblings.

On the other hand, children with no younger brothers and sisters were thrice as likely to become obese before going to school as their luckier peers.

The study, which was published in the journal Pediatrics, involved nearly 700 U.S. kids.

Dr. Julie Lumeng, lead author of the study and pediatrician with the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, noted that kids with younger siblings are less prone to become overweight than kids with no siblings, or those having older siblings.

Dr. Lumeng acknowledged that her team was not able to fully understand how the birth of a sibling affects the other siblings’ health and risk of becoming overweight. But the recent study is the first to monitor young children’s body mass index and find a relationship between childhood obesity risk and birth of a sibling in their family.

Study authors believe that the newly found link may be due to the way parents feed their kids after a new child is born. Researchers explained that children develop persistent eating habits around age 3. So, changing their diet at that critical age could have a long-lasting impact on their health.

Scientists also speculate that the older siblings become more active once a sibling is born. Many older siblings would rather engage in games with their younger siblings than watch TV or use a tablet. And this could contribute to a healthier BMI later on.

Dr. Lumeng called for more research into the way younger siblings affect other kids’ dietary habits and physical activity, even if the changes are only subtle. She noted that as obesity soars in the country, a simple strategy as having another child to help other siblings grow up healthy is most welcome.

Yet, the recent research adds up to the mounting evidence that younger siblings bring various health benefits to their older brothers and sisters. A 2014 study had showed that younger siblings are associated with a better mental health in other siblings. Plus, kids who have a brother or sister are more resilient to harder situations that may occur in life than kids with no siblings.

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Ultra-Processed Foods Responsible for Half of Calories in Americans’ Diets

March 10, 2016 By Dean Lamori Leave a Comment

Ultra-processed foods are convenient, but they have a downside the industry is not eager to talk about.

A recent study published in the BMJ found that the average American gets more than half of their calories from notoriously unhealthy foods known as ultra-processed foods. The findings may finally explain the obesity and diabetes ‘epidemic’ plaguing the U.S.

Researchers based their study on the data provided by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The research team analyzed eating patterns and calorie intake of 9,317 Americans involved in the survey between 2009 and 2010.

Study authors explained that ‘ultra-processed’ foods are foods in which manufacturers pour added sugar, extra salt, unhealthy fats, oils and food additives that otherwise would not be added in home cooked meals.

The additives include preservers, sweeteners, emulsifiers and other chemicals that artificially enhance the food’s natural taste, color, and texture. The most popular ultra-processed foods are prepackaged sweets, packaged snacks, instant meals, frozen meals, backed foods, cured meat, sugary drinks, and foods with an exaggeratedly long shelf life.

Researchers caution that the added sugar in these foods can lead to severe health problems including type 2 diabetes, stroke, cancer and obesity. Moreover, high-sugar content in prepackaged and fast-food items is often associated with a low nutritional value. This explains why the Western world has an overfed population which is equally malnourished.

According to the US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, added-sugar should be responsible for just 10 percent of daily calorie intake. Fortunately, due to a FDA’s recent decision manufacturers must display on the labels the sugar content in calories per serving.

The latest study revealed that ultra-processed foods are behind 57.9 percent of the total daily calorie intake of an average American. Plus, the study also found that nearly 90 percent of the energy intake is generated by added sugars.

Study authors also reported that the amount of added sugar in ultra-processed foods is eight times higher than in unprocessed foods and five times higher than in processed foods such as home cooked dishes.

According to the research, 1 in 5 calories Americans currently consume originates from ultra processed foods. Twenty percent of the study participants that reported being heavy consumers of ultra processed foods had 80 percent of energy coming from added sugars.

Researchers concluded that staying away from ultra-processed foods could be the best solution to reduce added sugars from Americans’ diets. But in order to achieve this goal, health agencies should issue more clear guidelines. Study authors noted that the 10 percent figure is rather vague for most Americans.

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Warning Labels Put on Sodas could Be very Efficient

January 17, 2016 By Amilia Allport Leave a Comment

A research revealed that warning labels could prevent some parents from buying their children sodas.

A new research published on January 14 in the Pediatrics journal revealed that warning labels put on sodas could be very efficient. The warning labels would look a lot like those that are put on the cigarette packs. The idea of the study comes from the growing concerns that sugary drinks could play an important role in the obesity, weight gain and tooth decay.

The lead author of the study, Christina Roberto and her team did survey online to approximately 2,400 parents that had a child with ages between 6 and 11. The experiment realized online split the parents into 6 big groups and they were asked to buy something to drink for their children. One group saw the beverages as they are displayed on a normal basis, the second group saw a calorie warning label and the other four remaining groups saw warning labels on the drinks. The warnings included the risks associated with the drinks and they included obesity, tooth decay, weight gain and type 2 diabetes.

60% of the people who saw no warning label chose a soda, 53% of the parents chose it, despite the calorie warning and 40% of the parents who saw the potential side effects of drinking sugary drinks chose it. The study’s findings show that the biggest impact on the parents have the warning labels.

Roberto said that a sugary drink of 6.5 ounces has seven teaspoons of sugar, which is twice the amount a sugar that is recommended for a child. The drinks that are considered to be healthy like sports drinks also contain high levels of sugar. This research discovered that approximately 66% of the kids with ages between 2 and 11 years old drank sugary beverages daily.

According to Lona Sandon, an assistant professor at the Texas Southwestern University, the effect of the labels on the sodas is the same as the warning labels that are put on the packages of cigarettes. They have impact on some people, but none on others. She also said that more awareness should be brought to the issue and parents should make wiser decisions for the sake of their children.

As warning labels put on sodas could be very efficient, in some of the states, these measures are already being taken. In California and in Baltimore City, legislations have been proposed for sugary drinks to have warning labels. The new dietary guidelines released recently also suggest that less than 10% of the daily calories should be taken from sweeteners.

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